A Gibson Girl

 I am: 

The Bookophile. More than reading, you just love books. Old ones, the way they smell, the crinkles and yellowing of the pages; new ones, the way they smell, too, the crispness, running your hands over a stack of them at the bookstore. You like books rescued from the street as much as signed first editions; you like drugstore paperbacks, you like hardcover new releases, you like it all. You just like books. To you, they are an object of beauty, and you would never, ever hurt them in any way. Suggested bookophile reads: Anything you can get your hands on. God, that’s gorgeous, isn’t it? 

Find out what you are here. 

YES, they get married. 

Dan Stevens said so in interviews. I wish I had posted to them before, but from memory, he says that he didn’t see her wedding dress until the “walking down the aisle” scene, so that reaction is unrehearsed; also, there’s BEDROOM SCENES!

Bedroom scenes, people. Good ones, meaning, presumably, Matthew doesn’t go all Mr. Pamuk on us. :) 

So, relax. They’re getting hitched. 

I used to think that the things I did were things everyone did: turned on their headlights when it was raining, snuck novels to school to read at their desk behind the textbook, memorized song lyrics like they were the ABCs, or knew how to make a cake. Eventually, I realized that the things I find easy, or intrinsic to me, are not things that everyone else finds easy or intrinsic. 

(I can be slow on the uptake sometimes.) 

Of course this also works the other way. My dad, for example, is a math genius. (Well, he does have his undergrad degree in math. And his masters in computer science. So numbers should be his friends.) Doing math homework with him when I was in school was always Battle of the Bulge-like, because: 1) I am in no way, shape, or form a math genius. That whole “Music and math go together” thing? Not in my brain. 2) The way my dad would teach me math, and the way my teachers would teach me math, was vastly different .(until high school, anyway, when I was blessed with The Best Math Teacher on the Planet, Mrs. Carter, who was not only an awesome possum math teacher, but also a knock-your-socks-off piano accompanist, and also very, very nice. She was firm, but nice. And I adored her. I still have the note she wrote me before I graduated from high school, and the “lucky penny” she put in with it.) In the search for Math answers, many math books were damaged, many pencils snapped, and many tears shed.

So, one of the things I’ve noticed about me, is that I…notice things. I notice what people are wearing, I notice how they wear their hair. I notice the color of women’s purses, and their jewelry. I notice carpet patterns, cloud patterns, birds in trees, dogs in windows, and how many kids are on the swing set. I notice, especially, what people are reading! 

This attention to detail is part of what makes me want to write—to catch those details in a permanent manner—but it’s also inherited. My brother can do this with movie release dates and sports details (at one point, he knew the weather conditions at kickoff for every Super Bowl. It was an awesome party trick.). My mom remembers dates when people died and of historical battles. I remember birthdays and anniversaries (this freaks out people in my office. Not only will I remember their birthday, but the day they got married, and their spouse’s birthday—assuming I knew their spouse. It’s weird.). 

Details, to me, are important. They’re the color of life. When I’m walking down the street, I notice people’s shoes, what they’re carrying, how many babies are in a stroller, the trees, the sky, the color of the grass. Passing a cornfield, I can tell how the corn is doing based on its height, the color of the stalks, the weight of them. (Part of this is growing up in a state where Agriculture is still the number 1 industry. And some of it is just me.) This is especially true when I travel. I will take out my journal when I’m in the car (And NOT driving, no worries) and write down what the landscape looks like, signs, animals, houses—what’s going on in this place I’m passing through. Writing down the details fills out the outlines of places and makes them real to me. I still remember the eerie hue my Grandma’s coral curtains gave her bedroom at midday, when the sun shone through them,   and the clink of the metal Hi-C container being pried open at breakfast time. I remember the way sand feels between my toes at the beach, how sun feels on my skin as I lay out, and the sting of winter wind on my cheeks. I remember every place my family’s Christmas tree has been in every house we’ve had, and how my grandparents’ house was decorated for Christmas.  I remember scraping ice of my parents’ driveway with our old blue shovel in May, the year I was in sixth grade and we had one of the coldest winters on record. 

A lot of the time I see people walking with their eyes unfocused, iPods blaring: sending the message, ‘anywhere but here.’ But ‘here’ can be a beautiful place, if you’re paying attention to it. 

BalletMet opened their 2012-2013 season last night with a gala of dance from companies all around the world, in tribute to the company’s departing Artistic Director, Gerard Charles. 

The evening, intended or not, broke itself nicely into themes. The first was Swans, in various guises. The evening opened with BalletMet’s dancers performing the waltz from Act I of Swan Lake (the hunting party scene), and dancers from Boston Ballet performed the White Swan pas de deux (from Act II of the same ballet). But the highlight of the “swan” theme was undisputedly Greta Hodgkinson of the National Ballet of Canada, performing The Dying Swan. 

Just seeing The Dying Swan was electric—this is one dance piece that has passed into legend (does anyone perform it any more) as ballerina Anna Pavlova’s piece de resistance. Her last words were “prepare my swan costume.” Unerringly choreographed by Michael Folkine, and set to the music of Saint-Saens, the dance is an elegant, breathtaking account of a swan’s final moments. Hodgkinson hardly seemed human in her stunning port des bras and delicate dancing. It was like watching an apparition dance. Simply stunning. 

The second theme: Love (as you would expect in a program consisting mostly of pas des deux!).  The most important thing I got from this section: Please, PLEASE David Nixon, come to us and put Cleopatra and Wuthering Heights on our company!! Both of these, set to the incomparable music of Claude-Michel Schonberg (Yes, THAT Claude-Michel Schonberg!) were brilliant. Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley (who is also a very lovely tweeter!) perfectly portrayed sets of tempest-tossed lovers seperated by millenia—Mark Antony and Cleopatra (the excerpt shown was the famous “pearl drinking” episode and resulting seduction) and Heathcliff and Catherine. The Wuthering Heights excerpt was so perfect—it was the book in miniature, showcasing the back and forth, love/hate relationship between these two immortal characters. Two home runs for the creator of Dracula. (Please, please, BalletMet, I want to see these both very soon! )

Another ballet I want to see almost immediately? Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly, set on Houston Ballet. The scene—the meeting of Butterfly and Pinkerton. The dancers—superb. Simon Ball, dancing Pinkerton, was definitely younger than we see in the opera, and thus, more appealing (I think). He shows Butterfly what love can be, and she (A glorious Amy Fote) responds to it in ecstasy, her shyness fading as they come together. Inside the packed theater, it seemed like no one was breathing when this excerpt ended (Side note: Are the dancers a couple? Their kissing was real, not air kissing, like one normally sees, and in their bows they were truly affectionate with each other.) 

The New York City Ballet brought Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (one of the pas de deux), danced by Abi Staffoed. While technically proficient, I found the dancing lacking in emotional quotient, and I’m fairly sure this is a Balanchine thing, as opposed to the dancers, because in their second piece, Gershwin Preludes (choreographed by Tom Gold), they were much better. 

Boston Ballet dancers Adiarys Almedia and Nelson Madrigal danced the White Swan pas in the first half of the program. While technically proficient, I found the dancing to lack a certain emotional quality. I wonder if that is just the way it’s danced in Boston, because they certainly showed both incredible virtuosity and excellent emotion in their second half offering, the pas de deux from Petipa’s Don Quixote. Almedia dashed off 20+ fouettes and double and triple pirouettes without a (seeming) thought, and Madrigal tossed off tours l’air, barrel turns, and other feats of dance as easily as one would turn a page. The two of them were dynamite. 

The evening’s non-ballet offering was two pieces by tap dancer Marshall L. Davis, Jr. Both of them—“Shedding” and “Trying to Keep Up With Mr. Peterson” were danced with verve and aplomb, but I found the latter to be the more enjoyable to watch. 

BalletMet’s dancers closed the evening with a piece from Jazz Moves II- “Pulses, Chords, Passion.” All dancers were excellent, but I especially enjoyed Annie Mallonee and Jimmy Orrante’s pas de deux. Perhaps we’ll see them dance again in Dracula? (I would LOVE to see Mallonee dance either Mina or Lucy. I’ve seen her dance on of the brides before.) 

It was a night of unforgettable dance, and a perfect send-off for Gerard, and a place setter for the season. 

It’s been one of those weeks where everything in general has been OK, but he little annoyances are KILLING me. So I’m writing about them to hopefully exorcise them. 

1. Got Wendy’s through the drive-through today. Ordered 5 nuggets, a salad, and the berry tea. Get berry tea. Put in my car. Make a turn and realize, lid not on tea, now 1/2 the tea is decorating my shoes and my floor mat. Lovely. 
2. At the Resort today, while going to an appt., a woman in the elevator did not know how to USE the elevator. And no, she was not from another country. She just didn’t know how to use it. 
3. Adventures with liquids, part II: I put a bottle of water in my work bag, and it spilled all over the books, magazine, and notebook that I had in there. Grrr. 
4. I have been lacking motivation to do ANYTHING all week, but finally got some workout in last night. I seriously have to either swim or hit the gym tomorrow morning. 
5. My winter coat is shot, so I have to buy a new one, and I don’t really want to spend an entire month’s clothing budget on a coat. But I have to, so I’m gearing up. 

Take these questions, from the BBC2 show Mastermind and find out. You have two minutes to answer them all! 

Answers following the jump. 

1. What was the first of Jane Austen’s novels to be published ? It appeared in 1811 and was described as being “ by a Lady”?

2.I n Pride and Prejudice, who married Mr. Collins after Elizabeth Bennet rejects his proposal?

3. In Emma, at the ball held by Mr. and Mrs. Weston, who turns down an invitation to dance with Harriet Smith with the excuse that he is ” an old married man and his dancing days are over”?

4.The final chapter of which novel opens with the line:

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can…?

5. Darcy writes to Elizabeth after she rejects his proposal of marriage. In the letter who does he say Wickham had tried to elope with?

6. In Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland spends two years from the age of 15 to 17 reading books that would supply her with useful quotations.What role is she said to have been in training for?

7 .In Mansfield Park , what does Mary Crawford give to Fanny to wear at the ball Sir Thomas holds for her and he brother, William?

8. In whose shop in London,where she is arranging for the sale of some of her mother’s jewels, does Elinor Dashwood unexpectedly meet her brother, John?

9. In Persuasion, what is the name of Sir Walter’s home in Somerset that he has to let to Admiral and Mrs Croft because he can no longer afford to live there?

10. In Emma what position in the village of Highbury did Mrs Bates’ husband hold before his death?

11. The Militia regiment in Pride and Prejudice had their winter headquarters in which town near Longbourn which is also home to Mrs Bennet’s sister?

12. When Sir Walter Elliot notices his daughter Anne’s improved looks he assumes she has been using a particular lotion which he also claims has “carried away Mrs Clay’s freckles”. What is the name of the lotion?

13. To which of his daughters does Mr Bennet say, after she has performed a second song:

“That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit” ?

14. In  Mansfield Park what is the title of the play the young people are planning to perform until Sir Thomas Bertram arrives home and puts a stop to it?

15 .In Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland is first introduced to Henry Tilney in the Lower Rooms in Bath by Mr King. What position did Mr King hold there?

16. Emma’s good opinion of Frank Churchill is shaken when she finds out the reason for his sudden trip to London. What was it?

Good luck!

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Where, O Where have the copy editors gone? 

This is from a column: 

Power washer’s are noisy.

Let’s play “What’s Wrong With This Sentence?” 

It should be: Power washers are noisy. 

No apostrophe. 

Sigh. 

A random post, but if there are answers to these things, I’d appreciate it if you’d share. 

• Why cardigans don’t count as “knits” in a “knit sale”. What else are cardigans? I mean, they involve yarn…they’re not cotton button-downs….they’re not pants…they’re not outerwear…
• Why people who are clearly visitors (ie, NC license plate-bearing cars) cannot park in abundant visitor spaces in my complex.
• Corollary: Why people find changing their license plates to the state they current live in to be a difficult process. I know none of us like dealing with the BMV, but isn’t that easier than dealing with getting your car back if it’s towed? 
• Another parking question: Why people have THREE cars, when the lease says you can only park TWO cars in the resident spaces. All others have to be stored in the available garages. If you want to operate a car lot, get a house, or become a car dealer. 
• Why people do not put on their car lights when the weather is apocalyptic. No, that’s OK, I don’t need to see your black/gray/white colored car in this hellish weather. That’s OK. 
• Why my work computer cannot run three IE windows at one time AND Outlook. 

Anyone? Bueller? 

In reward for reading so far, here is a link to my new Suscipio column, about wonder. Please read and comment! :) 

So my weekend was a bit schizophrenic.

It started out great. My best friend was in town, there was Scali’s for dinner, and Guinness Cake, and Michael Phelps winning more gold. These things are all excellent, and helped with the tremendously great profiteroles, sangria, and pizza I had on Thursday night. 

So this was all good!

(So was this…) 

(This is also true)

So there were two days of goodness.

Then Saturday. 

Saturday I was going to the Irish Festival for the first time with N, one of my church buddies. I was super looking forward to it. And for a bit, we had a good time. We bought lovely Celtic dresses (our Halloween costumes in perpetuity; I can go as Eowyn for the rest of my life), a winter hat, a Claddaugh ring, and books that we had signed by the authors. We had some fish and chips (well, I did, N is allergic to fish) and listened to Celtic music. And all was well.

Except it was REALLY hot. And Emily doesn’t do well with hot. 

We left, I dropped N off at home, and I drove myself to the ER for some fluids, because fluids are important, and I wasn’t keeping them down by mouth. So this was my first trip to the Resort’s NEW ER/ED/ EC (Emergency Room/Department/Center, whatever you want to call it). They have a very nice, very expanded triage area; a small X-ray room for ED patients only, and they’re right next to the new “imaging” (CT/MRI/other radiology fun) center. So after a lot of bags of fluid, some happy drugs to make my stomach behave, a CT scan with contrast (which meant a peripheral IV—I have some lovely scars now) and an EKG, I was sprung around 2 am. My sister came, drove me home, and I slept like the dead until today, when I finally felt human again.

Whew. 

So, all in all, a rather eventful weekend.